Shivam Gupta's career began with the Arjun Rampal-starrer Daddy (2017) and the Rajkummar Rao-starrer Trapped (2017). He then moved on to projects like Kanpuriye (2019), Little Things (2019), Choked (2020) and, more recently, the Pratik Gandhi-starrer Shimmy (2021).
Gupta's latest project is the upcoming Netflix series Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, starring Tahir Raj Bhasin, Shweta Tripathi Sharma and Anchal Singh.
Speaking about the series, Gupta, among the youngest casting directors in the industry today, said, "The casting for Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein happened in 2019 when we started briefing and testing many actors. We auditioned fresh faces, semi-known, known actors for the main three characters. It was challenging as we were to start shooting in March 2020."
The original female cast for the series did not include either Tripathi Sharma or Anchal Singh, he revealed. "Then the lockdown happened. The female cast was different, but it didn't work out due to COVID. Therefore, after working an entire lockdown for casting, we finally got our main female characters, Anchal and Shweta. Our final cast Anchal, Tahir and Shweta are extremely talented and beautiful."
Some of the cast, Gupta added, joined only after the project went on the floors. "Saurabh Shukla sir joined us two days after shooting began," he said. "It's a big show and I'm hoping for the best. We have cast many new actors from a theatre background and given a break to many fresh faces. It's an ensemble cast."
Describing casting as a key part of filmmaking, Gupta said, "Casting plays an important role in the success of a web-series or movie because the first thing is casting. If the cast is not good, there is no point of the storyline because we visualize the whole plot and the story through the actors in a film."
Having been part of Netflix's first big success in India, Sacred Games (2018), he said, "For me, it's very important to put the right cast in the right projects like Sacred Games (Season 2, 2019) and Choked. In the end, you feel overwhelmed and grateful to see the director satisfied that he has got the right cast for his project."
Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, directed by Sidharth Sengupta, will be premiered on Netflix tomorrow.